Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name”
(Psalm 100:4).
Students of antiquity tell us that the above verse from Psalm 100 uses the construction of ancient palaces to make a significant point. The king sat enthroned in an inner court of his palace. To enter his presence one must be allowed to pass through the gate of an outer wall and then permitted further passage through a door to the inner court. But a man must satisfy certain requirements before he could stand in the presence of the king. There were passwords that must be given.
Many petitions go unanswered because the petitioner has not made the proper approach to the throne. In the model prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, the first thing commanded is the hallowing of the name of God. Just how do we do that? Our text teaches that we do it with thanks- giving and praise.
I read a story once about a little boy who at bedtime informed his mother that he did not intend to pray that night. He explained that he could not think of anything he wanted. She replied that he must be a very fortunate boy if his needs were so well supplied, and then she suggested that he offer a prayer of thanks- giving in which he enumerated his blessings. He agreed to this and began to talk to God. He thanked God for his home. He thanked him for his father and mother and baby sister. He thanked him for his comfort-able bed. He thanked him for his ball and bat. He thanked him for his tricycle and little red wagon. He thanked him for his record player and records. He went on and on and on until even his mother began to tire of the long process. At last he stopped, looked up at his mother with a radiant smile on his face, and said, “Mama, ain’t God wonderful!” You see, of course, what had happened. Thanks-giving had turned into praise.
Thanksgiving is always a path to praise just as the gate of old was the way into the king’s court. We enter the gate as the psalmist said—by thanks- giving. When the thanksgiving turns into praise we are before the throne. We can then make our petition and expect great things from God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18. “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
It is odd how we distort
this passage to mean that we should be resigned in many things and
thankful for a few. We argue that everything cannot be the will of God for that
would include sin. True, the will of God did not order sin, but he involved
himself in sin on
For example, Joseph explained to his brethren that though they intended evil toward him when they sinned against him and sold him into slavery, God’s will was also involved and God used this evil deed for his good (see Genesis 45:5-7). Was God in this wicked deed then? Joseph said, “God did send me. . . .” I doubt if Joseph understood this when he was languishing in an Egyptian prison, but later it became quite clear. When things look dark we need to walk by faith rather than by sight and thank God.
We teach our children to say, “Thank you.” Whenever we receive a gift, we grab the phone or pen in order to express our thanks.
What would we say if some- one could send us a sunset?
What would we say if someone died for us?
What would we say to someone who had given us every-thing we have and are?
What would we say to someone who gave us every meal we ate, every night’s sleep we enjoyed, each friend we loved?
But instead of thanksgiving, our lives are full of complaining. Much of it is, of course, pious-sounding complaining about this wicked old world, this dreary old day, and these selfish associates, but it still boils down to “Woe is me!”
Griping has become our favorite intramural sport. We gripe about the weather, petty irritations, poor health, people that frustrate us, and the state of the national economy. You can always start a conversation with a stranger if you will think of something to gripe about. But start praising God and the same man will look at you suspiciously wondering how he happened to get caught with this religious fanatic.
To live with a constant griper is to live in great discomfort. More divorces are caused by griping than by adultery. How many troubled homes could become havens of happiness if griping was reduced? The truth is that the griper’s problem is not outside him but inside him.
To have a thankful heart is to be unconquerable.
Christian martyrs had a lot to gripe about in the Roman Colosseum. They had been herded like cattle into filthy dungeons and were then threatened with death by savage beasts. They could have complained that they were getting a raw deal. They might have wondered what they were getting out of their religion. They might have considered changing churches where things might suit them better. They might well have quit and, no doubt, many did.
But some sang hymns of praise as they went to meet torture and death, and a joy beyond understanding possessed them. God gave them thankful hearts, and they seem to have sensed what they could not have known—that their blood was the price of a Christian civilization. They died for all the babies that one day the Romans would no longer throw into sewers.
Be thankful in the worst of times not because times are bad but because God is good. Better times will come. Be thankful for the sting of defeat and defeat will lose its sting. Be thankful for victory and victory will lose its sinful pride. You must learn to thank God for everything: happiness, victory, success, and health. But you must retain that thankful heart in times of unhappiness, defeat, failure, and pain.
Thankfulness is not a substitute for intelligent problem solving, but it is the thing that makes a real solution possible. Even an unbeliever can see that it is better to make the best out of the worst rather than to make the worst out of the best.
Christ took a cruel cross and turned it into human
redemption. Paul took a stoning at Lystra and turned it into the conversion of
much of
Ephesians 5:20. “. . . giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This teaches us that nothing can come into our lives without having with it somewhere and in some way a cause for thanksgiving.
But what about pain, suffering, and grief? Can we find any reason for thankfulness in experiences that hurt?
We not only can but we have many times. I once heard a lady thanking a surgeon for doing something to her mother that would result in severe temporary pain. He had also just deprived her mother of a rather important part of her body, but the lady’s thanks were quite sincere.
Why, then, complain ceaselessly about the situation that humiliates us? It may be God’s scalpel to cut out a festering cancer of pride.
Why shake a puny fist at the incident that causes discomfort? It may be God’s medicine bottle to check a serious spiritual infection. If the medicine does the job, it doesn’t have to taste good to be appreciated.
When
When we are at our lowest, it is hard to be thankful. But in high moments, when the fog departs and we are very sure of God, we find many reasons for thankfulness. This is one of the great evidences of the truth of Christianity. It is in our best hours that the Christian view of life is most real.
2 Timothy 1:7. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Paul endured poverty, persecution, criticism, ingratitude, and long imprisonment. But throughout his burdened life he kept a sound mind. He was mentally and emotionally a healthy person.
How easy it is to grow bitter about life in our dark moods!
I remember an autumn day in
As we walk through life we all will behold much beauty, but we all will also accumulate some stings. Which will claim our attention? Which do we recognize as real?
Look at a bitter man. Listen to his complaints about sin, suffering, injustice, toil, and sickness. We cannot deny any of it. But as soon as we meet the other kind of man—the thankful, unembittered man— we know which attitude is right and real. The thankful man shows us a generous and believing soul full of radiant and unshakable good will. Argument falls before the human fact. Let the other man’s logic argue what it will. The thankful man is the healthy-minded man. You have but to try it. Let a man but alter his attitude toward trouble and the whole experience of trouble is altered. All the water in the world cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. All the sorrow and trouble in the world cannot sink a man unless he lets it take up residence inside his mind. Alter your attitude from complaint to thankfulness and you have changed your relationship with the whole spiritual world. This was the reason for Paul’s settled attitude. He looked back and saw dangers, difficulties, and dark moments. But he didn’t dwell on these. Instead, he remembered the great hours and out of a thankful heart threw forth his challenge to the future: “I can do all things through Christ . . .”
In the early days the majority of the church held this attitude. Christians went about preaching what Christ had done for them instead of complaining about, “What’s wrong with the church?” There was reason for such complaint (as the Corinthian letters make all too clear), but the early Christians preferred to dwell on their great hours rather than whine over their low times.
We could do that just as honestly. We need to ring out more of the good news about Christ and less of the bad news about the church. Poor things we may be, but it is marvelous that Christ has made even this much out of the sorry stuff we first gave him to work with. Let us continue to thank him until our thanksgiving turns into praise.